French Businessman's 80-Year Land Dispute in Herzliya Resolved by Court
A decades-long legal battle over a plot of land in Herzliya, Israel, has concluded with a court ruling in favor of the heirs of French businessman Israel Mitrani. Mitrani purchased land in Herzliya's "Tchelet Beach" area around 1947 through a broker named Moshe Kampias. The transaction was intended to be straightforward, but a complex scheme involving tax avoidance, alleged fraud, and a man attempting to claim shares from a deceased accountant turned it into an 80-year saga.
To avoid property taxes, a lawyer advised an indirect ownership structure. A company, "Karkot Ve'nechasim 6," was established, with Kampias's son and accountant Daniel Attia technically listed as shareholders. However, the true beneficial owner was Mitrani. A letter from Attia confirmed the land would eventually transfer to Mitrani, and in 1962, Mitrani's holding company was allocated 98% of the shares. The lawyer testified that Kampias and Attia were nominal shareholders, as Israeli law required at least two for a private company, but Mitrani was the undisputed owner.
The formal registration, however, remained incomplete. Decades later, in 2019-2020, a man named Adam Tal reported to the Companies Registrar that he had acquired shares from both Kampias and Attia. Crucially, Attia had passed away in 1996, meaning Tal claimed to have acquired shares from a deceased individual nearly 24 years prior. This led to previous court proceedings, including a settlement where Tal returned 50% of the shares to Kampias, despite the judge expressing discomfort with Tal acquiring shares from a deceased person.
Mitrani's children, Dvora and Ariel Mitrani, were unaware of the ownership dispute until July 2022, when Adam Tal contacted Ariel with a proposal to divide the land rights. This prompted Ariel to investigate, uncovering the entire affair. The court ultimately ruled that Dvora and Ariel Mitrani are entitled to be registered as owners of the land, rejecting the defendants' statute of limitations claim. The defendants, Kampias's heirs residing in the US, did not submit evidence or testify. The court ordered the defendants to pay the Mitrani family 120,000 shekels in legal costs and attorney fees.
